


In Which Virgil is a Victorian Lady

by Story_Teller_Of_Untold_Legends



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (I guess? he shows up and does one mildly helpful thing but also he kinda ditches after "helping"), Anxiety, Fainting, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Mentioned Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Morally Neutral Deceit Sanders, Social Anxiety, allusions to Virgil's "dark side" past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22928611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Story_Teller_Of_Untold_Legends/pseuds/Story_Teller_Of_Untold_Legends
Summary: After a long day, Thomas has a bit of an anxiety spiral and ends up discovering something about Virgil. Mild panic and fluffy shenanigans ensue.(Based off of an idea brought up by my friend @rosesisupposes! Check out her writing, both here on AO3 and tumblr- she's fantastic! Also thanks to my friend @vintage-squid for beta-ing! They also have writing on AO3 (and tumblr too, I believe) and I love them lots!)
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil & Creativity | Roman & Logic | Logan & Morality | Patton & Thomas Sanders, Platonic LAMPT - Relationship
Comments: 10
Kudos: 228





	In Which Virgil is a Victorian Lady

It had been a long day, to say the least. They had done some filming earlier in the day, but something had gone wrong with the audio, and they had to reshoot everything they had managed to get done. Roman saw it as an opportunity to really refine Thomas’s acting abilities, and Logan and Patton agreed with him wholeheartedly. However, it (unsurprisingly) set Virgil on edge, and he had Thomas triple and quadruple check that the audio was recording properly. 

After the reshooting wrapped up, Virgil was ready for Thomas to call it a day, burrow into a mound of blankets with his headphones, and pretend like the outside world didn’t exist. But of course, his friends spontaneously decided to invite Thomas out for dinner. And Thomas, being the absolute sweetheart that he was, just couldn’t decline, could he? Virgil tried to convince himself that a chill night out with some friends would do Thomas some good after a long day- but then Thomas ended up stumbling over his words while ordering (the waiter was cute and Roman had NO chill), and Virgil couldn’t stop overthinking that single moment for the whole night. The fact that Thomas’s friends seemed particularly cheerful and laughed uproariously at any silly little thing didn’t help matters much. Virgil liked Thomas’s friends, don’t get him wrong, but they just were a little… much, at times. Especially after what was an absolute train wreck of a filming day.

When Thomas returned home from dinner unscathed, Virgil thought that  _ finally _ they were going to be able to relax. But nope! The universe just decided to be against him today, as Thomas’s mom decided to call him. So while it was nice for Thomas to chat with his mom for a bit, it was also more his mom doing the chatting rather than him. It just had been too long of a day, but thankfully Thomas’s mom seemed to sense that, and the conversation didn’t end up going too long. However, any conversation on the phone was frankly too long in Virgil’s eyes. Thomas more or less collapsed onto his couch, burying his face in his hands and letting out a long, drawn-out groan. Virgil chose this moment to pop up at his usual spot by the staircase.

“Hey,” Virgil said, deciding that he didn’t really need more of an announcement to his presence than that.

“Oh, hey Virge. Was kinda wondering when you’d show up,” Thomas sighed, looking up from his hands. Virgil rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously.

“Yeah… sorry,” he muttered, refusing to meet Thomas’s gaze.

“It’s alright, it  _ has  _ been kind of a long day, hasn’t it?” Thomas replied, sitting up more on the couch and craning his head to try and meet Virgil’s gaze, which was currently focused on the floor. Virgil looked up sheepishly, giving a half-smile.

“Understatement,” Virgil huffed. This got a smile out of Thomas, and he let out a short burst of laughter.

“Right? There was the whole filming fiasco- can you imagine if we hadn’t discovered the audio malfunction until  _ after _ we finished recording everything and were ready to edit? And then totally floundering in front of that cute waiter like an idiot…” Thomas’s words faded into the background for Virgil, as the world seemed to have tilted on its axis while Thomas was speaking. Virgil felt a little shaky in the knees, and he had to blink a couple times to try and get his vision to focus. Before he was fully aware of what he was doing, Virgil had gripped the starway’s railing to try and keep his balance.

“Virgil? Are you okay?” Thomas asked, stopping midway through whatever he was saying. Virgil nodded vigorously, which ended up being a mistake as the room just seemed to spin faster.

“Mhm, yeah- you were saying something?” Virgil replied, putting aside his discomfort. Thomas clearly needed to vent for a bit, and Virgil was more than happy to ignore a dizzy spell to make sure Thomas could feel better about a long day.

However, the universe was really  _ really _ not on his side today, as Deceit suddenly decided to pop up in Patton’s spot, fake coughing obnoxiously. Thomas leapt to his feet eyes wide- and unfortunately Thomas’s sudden spike in anxiety caused Virgil’s vision to blur again, and his grip became white-knuckled on the railing.

“Sorry about that, I have a bit of a cold- and I  _ totally _ believe you, Virgil,” Deceit said with a saccharine smile. Virgil didn’t have the energy to do more than growl slightly and stick out his tongue at Deceit. The snake-like side rolled his eyes in response, opening his mouth to reply- but was cut off with a sudden burst of panicked rambling from Thomas.

“Deceit! What are you doing here?! Virgil, does this have something to do with- with whatever’s going on with you?” he asked, looking to Virgil with wide eyes- and that was it. Virgil’s vision blurred once more, and his eyes fluttered closed as he lost his grip on the railing and tumbled to the floor with a groan.

* * *

“Well that was completely unexpected,” Deceit muttered as he looked down at Virgil’s unconscious form sprawled on the floor. Thomas made a sputtering sound that faintly reminded Deceit of Roman’s so-called “offended princey sounds.”

“Completely  _ what _ \- Deceit, what is going on?!” Thomas demanded, crouching down on the floor next to Virgil. Deceit resisted the urge to roll his eyes again (at this rate, he was surprised that he wasn’t stuck in a consistent eye roll whenever he was around Thomas or the other sides).

“Ah yes, because checking the vitals of someone who is essentially a souped-up imaginary friend is  _ totally _ helpful, good job Thomas,” Deceit said with a slow clap.

“What else am I supposed to do?! Virgil just- wait a minute. Souped-up imaginary friend?” Thomas asked, looking up at Deceit with a bewildered expression. This time, Deceit gave in to the urge to roll his eyes.

“That’s what you’re concerned about?” Deceit asked dryly. Thomas sighed.

“Okay, fair point… hold up, did I just agree with you?” Thomas said, looking like he was starting to question his life choices. Or perhaps more accurately, his morals, as Deceit could sense Patton starting to rise up. He stepped to the side with a grimace, allowing Patton to appear.

“Hey kiddos! What’s- oh my goodness!” Patton cried once his gaze landed on Virgil. He knelt down on the other side of Virgil, and helped Thomas turn him over.

“Nngh, no Dad, five more minutes,” Virgil whined, eyes twitching slightly but remaining closed.

“He called me ‘Dad!’” Patton said near-reverently, expression lighting up. 

“Hate to figuratively burst your bubble, Patton, but I believe he’s just disoriented,” Logan said, having just risen up.

“I’m still taking it as a win,” Patton replied a little petulantly. Logan let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head fondly.

“Logan! Thank goodness, surely you’ve got an answer as to what happened to Virgil,” Thomas said, sighing with relief. Logan only frowned in response, looking down to Virgil, then back to Thomas.

“I am not sure as to why Virgil suddenly is unconscious- I merely came because there seemed to be a bit of a fuss out here,” Logan replied with a shrug.

“Anxiety spiral,” Deceit piped up, causing the others’ gazes to snap to him, Patton and Logan seemingly just noticing that Deceit had been standing there.

“How long have you been there?!” Patton all but shrieked, and Roman suddenly popped up with his sword drawn.

“What’s happening?! I’ll protect you, Patton!” Roman cried, eyes darting around before they focused on Deceit. Patton giggled helplessly at Roman’s dramatics, while Deceit let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Everyone, calm down. Virgil just fainted seemingly out of nowhere, and Deceit was there when it happened,” Thomas said, his hands up in a placating gesture. Roman’s stance relaxed, and he willed his sword away semi-sheepishly.

“Thank you for explaining, Thomas. Now Deceit- what did you mean by ‘anxiety spiral?’” Logan asked, turning his attention towards Deceit. The others looked to him as well, surprising Deceit slightly. Then again, they were probably more concerned about Virgil, not necessarily anything Deceit had to say.

“Thomas, do you mind recalling what you were doing before Virgil passed out ‘out of nowhere,’ as you put it?” Deceit asked. Thomas frowned slightly, but acquiesced all the same.

“I was just venting about today, I guess? And I did start talking about all the ways it could have gone worse, but I assumed that was Virgil’s influence…” Thomas trailed off thoughtfully.

“Oh, I see! Thomas, your ‘what ifs’ about the day caused Virgil to suffer from a dizzy spell as a result of your fretting. A  _ literal  _ anxiety spiral!” Logan explained, and Deceit could practically see the proverbial lightbulb lighting up above his head.

“Yes, it used to happen rather frequently before…” Deceit trailed off, shaking his head.

“Before?” Thomas asked, tilting his head to one side.

“Nevermind. You can’t handle this, and you still need me here,” Deceit replied, sinking out before any of them could say otherwise.

* * *

Virgil blinked awake in confusion, not really sure where he was, at first. Then he registered that he was lying on Thomas’s couch, with his head pillowed in someone’s lap and their fingers gently running through his hair. All the memories came flooding back. Had he  _ really _ just passed out in front of Thomas?! He hadn’t done that since his days with the… others.

“Virgil? Hey, how are you feeling?” a voice asked, and it was then Virgil realized that it was Patton’s lap he was lying in. Virgil shrugged, sitting up with Patton’s help. Patton didn’t go far, gently rubbing Virgil’s arm and regarding him with a concerned expression.

“I’m fine,” Virgil replied stiffly, not wanting to go into exact details. Luckily, he was saved from Patton’s questioning gaze by Logan walking into the room.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Here, drink this. It is important to hydrate after a dizzy spell,” Logan said, summoning a water bottle and holding it out towards Virgil.

“L, we’re imaginary,” Virgil deadpanned.

“Just take it, Sleeping Emo! It’s Logan’s way of saying he was worried about you,” a voice piped up from somewhere over by the stairs. Virgil squinted over (the lights had been dimmed and the curtains were closed, which he appreciated), and saw Roman lounging in Virgil’s usual spot on the stairs. Virgil rolled his eyes, but did take the water bottle from Logan and took a few sips.

“You didn’t try to kiss me in my sleep, did you?” Virgil huffed, raising an eyebrow at Roman (although he wasn’t certain if the princely side could see it in the low light). Roman let out an offended gasp, leaping to his feet.

“I would NEVER! Especially since you’ve expressed discomfort with that in the past. But I will have you know that I was ready to fight for your honor while you were unconscious!” Roman protested, gesturing wildly.

“I thought you showed up to protect Patton?” Logan asked.

“Who was watching over Virgil! It totally counts,” Roman said petulantly, crossing his arms. Virgil huffed out a laugh, shaking his head.

“Well, thanks anyway, Princey,” he said with a small smile. Roman smiled back, opening his mouth to say something more- but was cut off by Thomas coming down the stairs.

“Guys, quiet down with the bickering, you’ll wake up- oh! Nevermind, he’s awake,” Thomas said, eyes lighting up once he saw Virgil.

“Sorry I uh, fainted, in front of you,” Virgil said sheepishly.

“That’s okay! Deceit explained the whole ‘anxiety spiral’ thing to us- well, it was more like he led us to the answer… but anyway, I’m sorry for worrying so much that I actually made you dizzy,” Thomas replied, walking over to sit on Virgil’s other side and smiling softly at him.

“It’s alright. And hold up, Deceit helped you?” Virgil asked, frowning in confusion.

“Well… sort of. He did leave after helping us figure out why you fainted,” Thomas replied with a shrug. Virgil huffed out a laugh.

“Yeah, that sounds like him alright,” he scoffed.

“The point still stands that he was moderately helpful. At least we were able to confirm that it wasn’t something life-threatening. Anyway- as you seem to be doing well, Virgil, I believe I will head back to the mindscape,” Logan said, looking to Virgil for confirmation.

“Sure, thanks Logan,” Virgil replied, and with that, Logan sank out with a curt nod of his head.

“I must be off as well- good to see you back to your grim and dreary self, Virgil!” Roman said in a mild sing-songy voice as he sunk out, causing Virgil to chuckle and shake his head good-naturedly.

“I’m glad you’re alright, kiddo. Let me know if you need anything!” Patton chirped, giving Virgil’s arm one last squeeze before sinking out as well. Virgil and Thomas sat in silence for a few moments, until Thomas spoke up.

“So… Virge?”

“Yeah?”

“Deceit said something kind of weird before leaving- something about how the ‘anxiety spiral’ used to happen a lot? Before?” Thomas asked with concern. Virgil let out a sigh.

“Yeah. It was when I was with the… others. Had to be careful with who was around if I felt like I was gonna pass out- I can’t tell you how many times I ended up with a sharpied-on mustache because of Remus,” Virgil huffed.

“That… sounds pretty tame, for him,” Thomas replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh he definitely did worse. It just was typically paired with the mustache,” Virgil said with a bout of forced laughter. Thomas grimaced slightly, but soon shook his head and schooled his expression into something more neutral.

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay now,” Thomas said, and Virgil could tell he wasn’t just talking about his dizzy spell.

“Thanks, Thomas,” Virgil replied softly. Thomas smiled, and Virgil could feel a smile growing on his face as well.


End file.
